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Clarence: The Purple Traffic Calming Wizard

StreetFilms wishes you a Happy Halloween one of the only ways we know how!

We went back to check in how things were progressing on the NYC DOT's plans for the 9th Avenue physically separated bike lane. The pleasant surprises continue as lane improvements, ample signage, and cyclist-only bike signals have now appeared making the innovative project even safer. And although driver behavior continues to improve, there are a few problems to highlight.

<br>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[00:05] Hey folks, it’s your favourite traffic calming maniac and
in honour of Halloween I have disguised myself as a wizard, and we are
here in Chelsea at the site of the physically separated bike lane on
9<sup>th</sup> Avenue, the innovative project that the New York City
Department of Transportation has conjured up for us, and we’re going
to talk about that and hopefully people are going to talk to us.
What do you think of the new bike lane?</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:27]
I love it.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[00:28] You love it? </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:30]
I love it. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[00:31] Hey, this guy loves it. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:33]
Love the bike lane. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:35]
This is just separated and there’s no cars interfering. I can
enjoy my bike ride better. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[00:39] It seems to be the first day that they have the bike lights
working. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [00:42]
Wow, I didn’t even realise that. I usually ride on the east
side where there’s all bets are off. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[00:49] So one of the great things they have here now is they have activated
the bike signals. This was one of the more important concerns
was how do you make the left hand turns through the separated bike lanes
safe, and these traffic signals do that by giving bicyclists a dedicated
signal. They will get the green only while the drivers that want
to turn left must hold until they get their green arrow and then the
bike signal will go red. Man do I love these bollards. These
bollards have been placed here to stop the cars from turning directly
into you when making that left. And they’re so… they’re
so beautiful. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [01:28]
This is making New York more… first of all, coming from a third world
country, it’s fantastic to see these bike lanes, and catering for
the pedestrian and the cyclist, fantastic.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [01:37]
It’s going to make it look more beautiful, it’s going to encourage
people to come and visit. We love it. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[01:42] Hey here on 9<sup>th</sup> Avenue it ain’t all about cyclists.
As you can see they’ve started to fill in some of these concrete islands,
and these concrete islands are number one helping serve as a buffer
for the separated bike lane. But also they’re helping pedestrians
navigate 9<sup>th</sup> Avenue a little better. It looks here
sometime maybe in the spring we’re going to have some greenery planted,
a tree, a shrub, I don’t know, I love greenery, I’ll take anything.
One of the most important parts of this physically separated bike lane
is that, of course, parking has been taken from being curb side to outside,
and they’ve done that here with flexible bollards, we love the bollards
of course, just because there’s a physically separated bike lane doesn’t
mean that there’s no more parking. You can still park but you
can’t park here. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:25]
Yes, very excited. It’s the future. Right where they’re
turning, that’s my only issue. Yeah. I don’t know I’ll
see how it works. I haven’t had any problems with it yet. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[02:34] Another thing we noticed is that there’s a lot of bike racks
going in on 9<sup>th</sup> Avenue, about a half dozen or more per
block. It’s always good to have more bike parking. I love
bike parking. What’s that? Big bikes for that lane?</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [02:45]
Wow, too wide, too wide. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Clarence Eckerson Jr.:</i>
[02:53] That’s a no-no. So as you can see behind us this is
one of the problems we’re going to have to face. The cyclist
has to go around this… look at that. That’s because this truck
came up, backed in and parked in the bike lane. And to be honest
I don’t know how much more you could do to keep that truck out of
there other than having a police officer here at all times. So
obviously there’s some education that’s going to have to go on and
some enforcer. And so there you have it, lots of new physical
improvements going on here on the 9<sup>th</sup> Avenue bike lane, the
concrete islands are going in, a lot of pavement markings, the dedicated
bike signals for cyclists. So this continues to be something very
exciting to watch as it nears its completion and then we’ll get to
see how successful it is. And what do you think about my costume
today?</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [03:42]
It’s slightly too tight. If you maybe one size bigger then I’ll
probably say it’s perfect.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [03:47]
From a female perspective, we think it’s fantastic. The tighter
the better. It shows off those pecks. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Speaker:</i> [03:50]
Purple’s your colour. Purple’s your colour. </font> <br>
</p>
http://transcriptdivas.ca/transcription-canada/

But DOT, NYPD, we need ENFORCEMENT above all else: will make great initiatives like this pointless unless the NYPD is asked to give as much attention to drivers breaking the law as the rest of society. While drivers are able to park wherever they like, cars will always be seen as a convenient form of transport. If they are forced not to break the law and seek real parking spaces even the most suburban New Yorkers will start to see mass transit as a better option.

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This comment funded by the Campaign to get Clarence's trip to Wave Hill posted online.

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